_wonky_ = "shady"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

The first time I heard "wonky," in the '80s, it meant wobbly or unstable or
weird.  OED has roughly comparable exx. back to 1919.

JL

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:08 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _wonky_ = "shady"?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That does sound very wonky, but why do you keep talking about the
> e-books case?
>
>     VS-)
>
> On 4/15/2012 11:44 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 9:16 PM, victor steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com>
>  wrote:
> >> Definitely need context for this one.
> > The writer is pointing out that the plaintiff, X, has left out of his
> > complaint against E information that would  eliminate the basis of his
> > complaint that he is the victim of a conspiracy involving A, B, C, D,
> > *and E*, given that E is not a party to the conspiracy of A, B, C, and
> > D, despite E's having instigated the formation of the conspiracy by
> > making an offer that can't be refused by an individual, but one that
> > can be manipulated by a group, to the detriment of X, whose motivation
> > for including E in the suit is that X would be harmed in any case,
> > absent any conspiracy, if E is free to make the offer, since X would
> > have to match that offer, at great cost to his bottom line, in order
> > to continue to be in control of this business.
> > --
> > -Wilson
>
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